CURRY. 233 
brown; add a tablespoontul of Curry powder, a little stock 
or milk, and some salt. This is a digestible, warming dish. 
Those of the ingredients contained in Curry powder which do 
not find detailed notice in these pages, may be shortly summarized 
as to any remarkable properties. Cardamom seeds are from a 
plant allied to ginger, being brought from Bombay, and Madras : 
they are aromatic by reason of a volatile oil, which is fragrant, and 
is found to contain manganese. Cassia is a cheaper and coarser 
kind of Cinnamon, for which it makes a fairly excellent substitute. 
Coriander, an umbelliferous herb, furnishes aromatic seeds, 
being now grown for the purpose in Essex; these seeds are 
cordial, but narcotic if used too freely; the green herb (seeds 
and all) stinks intolerably of bugs; nevertheless the fruits are 
generally blended with Curry powder. By the Chinese the 
Coriander seeds are believed able to confer immortality. The 
Manna of the Israelites is likened (in the Book of Numbers) to 
Coriander seed; and nowadays this seed is often mixed with 
bread in the north of Europe. Cumin is common in Egypt as 
a fruit of which the seeds, in odour and properties, closely 
resemble caraways, but are stronger. These seeds are put into 
bread in Germany, and into cheese in Holland. The volatile 
oil of the fruit contains cymol, and cuminol, which are redolent 
of lemon, and caraway odours; it signally diminishes nervous 
reflex excitability when given from two to six drops on a small 
lump of sugar. Fenugreek (or Fanum grecum) is an Indian 
fodder plant, its seeds having a strong smell, and a bitter oily 
taste, these being mucilaginous and emollient, like linseed, or 
the marsh mallow. Turmeric, which gives the yellow gamboge 
colour to Curry when served at table, possesses tubers which 
yield a deep yellow powder of a resinous character. The Cubeb 
is a pepper from Java, possessing an odorous volatile oil, and a 
resin, contained in the dried berries of a climbing shrub; these 
principles will stimulate the intestines against constipation, and 
diffuse warmth; furthermore, they will serve to soothe irritable 
urinary passages. All such Spices, and tropical condiments 
prove of valuable antiseptic use against Cholera, Fever, and 
Dysentery, by destroying the microbes of these diseases. Curry 
powder, therefore, as a whole, if genuine, is undoubtedly a 
combination which exercises divers medicinal effects of a 
salutary sort when taken at table. . 
Chutney, again, or Chutnee, is in the East Indies well known 
